Bergman, Joakim

Abstract [en]

SSAB EMEA is one of the world's most prominent industries in the steel manufacturing. In order to ensure continuous production of steel and an otherwise functioning operation some vital features must work. One of those vital features that affect all functions within the organization is the distribution of electrical energy. Below ground at SSAB EMEAs area there are cable culverts where power supply and control cables are located. Power supply cables provides processes and facilities in the area and control cable for controlling the manufacturing process.A fire in any part of these cable culverts would cause serious consequences from an economic perspective and may also result in serious injury or death.The work of this report has examined what SSAB EMEAs own organization can do in a fire incident in the cable culvert. It was necessary to find out what the internal emergency service could do in case of a fire incident. The division of electrical distribution at SSAB EMEA also has an important role in case of a fire incident because of their expert skills regarding electrical equipment.Four main issues were identified and became the basis for the further work.• Culvert design and its fire protection?• The proactive safety works in the organization in terms of material and education?• What is the knowledge in terms of safety behaviour in spaces with electrical installations of the staff at the internal fire department?• What procedures are there for the staff of electrical distribution to make the cables current less in a fire scenario?The methods used to make this resource assessment of the organization are largely based on site visits and interviews at both the department for distribution and on the internal emergency service.Initially it was considered important to get better insight in the two different departments. What resources had each department? What was their view of the issue and its problems? Several visits to the culvert system was carried out to see what physical conditions the facility was in terms of fire safety, accessibility, evacuation and similar.Discussions were held regarding the ability of the personnel at the fire department and an inventory of their equipment was conducted. Discussions and interviews became a foundation for what areas that should be further investigated in literature study. Great importance was considered on security issues and above all personal safety in case of emergency resource in spaces with high voltage installations. This led to an investigation with a number of different extinguishing methods and their advantages and disadvantages when used in high voltage installations.Regulations regarding BA-group were investigated in the report with respect to the resources of the organisation.Pre-planning processes is about the prevention of accidents as well as handle them safely and effectively. It all has a basis in the law lag (2003:778) om skydd mot olyckor.The law states that the facility owner or the holder of the business is required to prevent and mitigate such damage. A good pre-planning process is one way in the early stages to prevent and reduce such consequences. Pre-planning process involves many parts, it covers everything from collecting technical information about the object to risk analysis and exercises in action. The work culminates in operational plans with information regarding technical details of the object that serves the emergency service in case of an accident.Other organisations with cable culverts and even SSAB EMEA in Luleå has generally no set of procedures on how an fire fighting operation should be conducted in their own culvert system. Those responsible for each organisation meant that the way it should be done was entirely dependent on the situation.The discussion could be concluded that during a fire, it is important to be able to do as many of the cables current less to minimize the risks for rescue workers during an operation in the culvert. The opinions regarding strategies of fire fighting in the culvert system was based on the literature study as well as the organizations capacity in terms of manpower and equipment. It was confirmed that the strategies was different depending on where the fire would likely begin. If the fire would start in section T-EH it was considered most effective and safe to extinguish the fire by using the so-called fire-extinguishing grenades. In the sections T-EA and T-EB the recommendation was to make experiments of smoke gas evacuation. This could be done by filling the whole section with cold smoke and by pressurization try to evacuate the smoke gases at the escape route in the middle of the section. A successful evacuation of smoke gases as a result of pressurization could be the only way to make an acceptable environment for the fire fighters to go in to the culvert and extinguishing the fire. To suppress the actual fire it is suggested to use either dry chemical powder or water spray.